Category: News

If Humane Society CEO Wayne Pacelle Cares About Animals, He Should Resign

FEB. 2, 2018 UPDATE: Wayne Pacelle did the right thing — today he announced his resignation as CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

I’m a longtime supporter of the Humane Society of the United States, which has done an exceptional job in helping to eliminate puppy mills, cracking down on dog-fighting operations and assisting pets affected by natural disasters.

At the same time, I’m not a fan of its CEO, Wayne Pacelle. Why not? Because back in 2007, when more than 50 pit bulls were rescued from Michael Vick’s dog-fighting operation, Pacelle said they could not be rehabilitated and wanted them all to be euthanized.

Fortunately, the wiser and more compassionate officials at animal welfare organizations like Best Friends Animal Society and BAD RAP knew better, took in the dogs, and soon proved Pacelle to be dead wrong. Many of those survivors, known as the “Vicktory Dogs,” became certified therapy dogs, including Jonny Justice, who was awarded the ASPCA — not HSUS — Dog of the Year honor in 2014.

Nearly 11 years later, there’s even more reason to dislike Pacelle, as well as many members of the HSUS board of directors.

Sexual Harassment and a Toxic Work Environment for Women

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that an internal investigation of the HSUS identified three complaints of sexual harassment by Pacelle. Senior female leaders warned Pacelle that his history of sexual relations with subordinates, as well as with donors and volunteers, could hurt the nonprofit. When they complained about Pacelle’s behavior, it fell on deaf ears.

The HSUS offered settlements to three employees who said they were either demoted or fired after reporting the harassment. That settlement money came from donations intended to help animals, not the CEO.

Pacelle claims it’s all a lie. “This is a coordinated attempt to attack me and the organization,” he told the Washington Post. “And I absolutely deny any suggestion that I did anything untoward.”

Some HSUS employees agreed with Pacelle, saying all of those relationships were “consensual.” But others said he created a toxic work environment in which female employees believed they had to have sex with him to further their careers.

Seven HSUS Board Members Resign in Protest

Today the majority of the 32-member HSUS board voted to let Pacelle keep his job. Seven board members immediately did the right thing and resigned in protest. News of the board’s decision is already resulting in the loss of essential contributions from major donors, the Washington Post reports.

“I think Wayne Pacelle should do the right thing and resign,” Rachel Perman, director of charitable giving at Tofurky, told the Post. “I absolutely will not donate to HSUS if Wayne Pacelle is employed.” In November, Perman sent an email to all HSUS board members, urging them to investigate Pacelle after several employees told her they’d been mistreated by him. She only heard back from one board member, interior designer Erika Brunson, who asked Perman if she was out of her mind.

I believe all those women. By not ousting Pacelle, Brunson and the other board members are basically indicating it’s acceptable for the CEO to use his power to screw people — and with the loss of donations, they’re screwing animals as well. Pacelle and those board members should be ashamed of themselves.

Photo: Slowking4

RECALL ALERT: Just Food For Dogs Turducken Frozen Dog Food

Just Food For Dogs has announced a voluntary recall of some of its cooked frozen dog food products after green beans in some of its Turducken tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes.

The food was tested after a customer’s dogs became sick with vomiting and diarrhea after eating it. Both dogs made a full recovery within a day when their owner switched their diet to another Just Food For Dogs product.

This is the first recall in the history of the company, which makes hand-crafted food for dogs.

“It is genuinely heartbreaking to report that we have just received preliminary test results that suggest our human-grade green bean supply was sent to us contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes,” Shawn Buckley, founder of the company, said in a recall announcement sent to customers that was posted by Dog Food Advisor. “Healthy dogs may experience no signs but some, including elderly or weakened dogs, may experience vomiting and/or diarrhea.”

Although severe disease from Listeria monocytogenes is rare in dogs, it can be more concerning for humans, Buckley said. It can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

The following Just Food For Dog products that contain green beans are being voluntarily recalled:

Turducken
Batch dates XX110118 to XX123118

Beef and Russet Potato
Batch dates XX110118 to XX011419

Fish and Sweet Potato
Batch dates XX110118 to XX011419

Just Food For Dogs is preparing new batches of these products without the green beans that will be available by Jan. 17 at all of its locations.

If you purchased one of the recalled products, stop feeding it to your dog and dispose of it. Upon request, Just Food For Dogs will reimburse customers who bought these products that were made Nov. 1, 2017 to Jan. 14, 2018.

Customers with questions about the recall can email support@justfoodfordogs.com. Include the first and last name on your Just Food For Dogs account.

“While this issue may not be our fault, the safety and efficacy of every meal is our responsibility,” Buckley stated. “As we work with our restaurant supplier, we will be implementing greater controls to prevent this from happening in the future.”

Photo: Just Food For Dogs

New Study Finds Raw Meat Diets May Not Be Safe for Dogs or People

Over the past few years, food diets for dogs that include raw meat, vegetables and fruit have really been growing in popularity. Many people who feed their dogs this diet were probably spooked by the major recall of Iams, Hill’s Pet Nutrition and nearly 200 other pet food brands in 2007 after thousands of dogs and cats were sickened or died from kidney failure due to contaminants in these products. (My sister’s cat was one of the victims.)

Raw diets have been fed to racing dogs for decades, and were first recommended for family pets by Dr. Ian Billinghurst, an Australian veterinarian, in 1993. He and other raw diet proponents said pets thrive on uncooked meaty bones and vegetable scraps, since that’s what their ancestors ate long ago — not processed, grain-based commercial food. It was Billinghurst who coined the term “BARF” diet, an acronym for Bones and Raw Food, or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food.

But speaking of barf, could feeding your dog raw food make both you and your pet sick? A new study, published in Vet Record, found that some raw diets can be unhealthy for pets as well as people.

Researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands tested 35 products from eight brands of commercially available raw meat-based diets (RMBDs) to see if they contained bacteria and parasites that can be transmitted from pets to humans.

And yes, they sure did. Forty-three percent of the products contained species of Listeria, which can seriously sicken pregnant women, babies, elderly people and anyone with a weakened immune system. Nearly 25 percent contained E. coli, while 20 percent contained Salmonella. These could cause bacterial infections in pets — and can be transmitted to their owners who handle contaminated pet food or surfaces, touch their infected pet or eat cross-contaminated human food.

But what about feeding your dog non-commercial raw meat? Not a good idea, according to the researchers.

“Feeding of freshly prepared, non-frozen raw meat based-diets to companion animals can not only result in infection and disease in the animals, but also poses a risk to public health and livestock farming through shedding of pathogens into the environment,” they stated in the study. “Pet owners should therefore be informed about the risks associated with feeding their animals RMBDs.”

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) discourages feeding pets “any animal-source protein that has not first been subjected to a process to eliminate pathogens because of the risk of illness to cats and dogs as well as humans.”

To prevent your dog or yourself from getting sick from raw meat, the AVMA recommends “cooking or pasteurization through the application of heat until the protein reaches an internal temperature adequate to destroy pathogenic organisms.”

For more information about the pros and cons of a raw food diet for your dog, check out WebMD.com.

Photo: dewkort

Dog OK After Being Snatched by Eagle and Dropped 4 Miles from Home

As Felipe Rodriguez watched in horror, an eagle swooped down and snatched his sister’s Bichon Frise, Zoey, from her backyard in Bowmanstown, Penn., Tuesday afternoon.

Rodriguez, who was visiting from Chicago, thought he might be hallucinating. “It seemed like something from the ‘Wizard of Oz,'” he told the Associated Press (AP). “I’m a city boy. This doesn’t happen in my world.”

He ran to the back door when he heard screeching from the yard. “The bird was holding onto the dog,” he told the AP. “There was flapping of wings and then it was gone.” He watched the eagle fly off with Zoey over trees on the banks of the nearby Lehigh River.

After driving around the neighborhood to try to find the eagle and Zoey, who’s 7 years old and weighs only 8 pounds, Rodriguez returned to his sister’s house and gave her the bad news.

“I did nothing but cry all day,” his sister, Monica Newhard, told the AP. She said she frequently saw eagles around her home, and thought they may have snatched some of her rabbits before. But she never expected one to take any of her four dogs.

Eagles have snatched dogs and cats, although it doesn’t happen very often, according to Laurie Goodrich, a biologist at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton, Penn. Due to the current lack of food and frozen waterways, eagles and other raptors are “looking a little more widely and taking advantage of whatever might be out there,” Goodrich told the AP.

As Newhard and her husband were sadly searching the nearby woods for Zoey’s body, Christina Hartman happened to be driving along a snowy backroad four miles away when she saw something furry ahead of her. She stopped and got out of her car.

“I notice this little frozen dog, icicles hanging from all over. It could hardly move,” Hartman told the AP. She wrapped the dog up in a blanket and drove her to her home, where she fed her chicken-and-rice soup. She let the dog sleep with her in her bed. By the next morning, the dog was more active, although she had several wounds on her back and walked with a limp. The dog wasn’t wearing a collar.

Determined to find the little dog’s owner, Hartman checked Facebook. Lo and behold, there was a lost dog posting with a photo of Zoey. It was the same dog Hartman had rescued.

Hartman immediately called Newhard. “I said, ‘It’s a miracle! I have your dog!'” she told the AP.

Zoey is back home and recovering — although Newhard said the dog refuses to go outside. “I really can’t blame her,” she told the AP.

In a Facebook post, Monica Gary Newhard wrote that a good Samaritan had provided a raptor-proof outdoor pen in which her dogs can now safely play. “My fur babies will never be allowed out again unless they are supervised,” she wrote.

Photo: Monica Gary Newhard/Facebook

Hero Cat Who Saved Boy from Dog Attack Honored in 2018 Rose Parade

Remember this amazing viral video captured by a security camera a few years ago? As a little boy sat on his bicycle in his Bakersfield, Calif., front yard, a neighbor’s Chow/Lab mix ran at him, bit his leg and pulled him to the ground. The boy’s mom ran to save him.

But before she could reach him, like a superhero from out of nowhere, the family’s cat, a 7-year-old Tabby named Tara, pounced on the dog and chased him away.

The 5-year-old boy, Jeremy Triantafilo, needed 10 stitches on his leg, but it could have been a lot worse if not for Tara, a former stray adopted by his family. (Sadly, although several people offered to adopt and rehabilitate the 8-month-old dog, and thousands signed online petitions asking for the young dog’s life to be spared, his owner decided to have him euthanized.)

For the first time ever, in 2015 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (spcaLA) gave its annual National Hero Dog honor to a cat — Tara.

“We were so impressed by Tara’s bravery and fast action that the selection committee decided that a cat this spectacular should be the National Hero Dog,” spcaLA President Madeline Bernstein said in a statement at the time.

Three years later, Tara is being honored for her bravery again — this time by being featured on a float in the 2018 Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day. The parade’s theme this year is “Making a Difference.”

Tara and her family will be aboard the Lucy Pet “Paws For Life” float, which honors heroic animals who saved, protected and made a difference in human lives: specifically, three dogs and one cat.

“We are honored to be working with such heroic animals and the people who love them,” said Joey Herrick, president and founder of the Lucy Pet Foundation and Lucy Pet Products. “We salute the animals for their love, companionship and bravery…whether it’s a cat protecting a little boy from a vicious dog attack or a military working dog shielding soldiers in combat, they each deserve this very special recognition.”

Lucy Pet is a family-owned pet-product business based in California. Its proceeds help fund the nonprofit Lucy Pet Foundation, whose mission is to reduce pet overpopulation and the euthanasia of over 60,000 dogs and cats per week in the United States.

Tara joins these canine heroes on the Lucy Pet float:

  • Sirius, a retired K-9 military working dog who was in Afghanistan with his best friend and handler, 22-year-old Marine Sgt. Joshua Ashley, when Ashley was killed by an IED. Although the German Shepherd was also injured, he returned to Afghanistan again for an additional tour of duty. Sirius was adopted by Ashley’s family and will ride the float with Joshua’s mom, Tammie, in memory of her son.
  • Jax, a Belgian Malinois police dog with the Oxnard Police Department in California. During a recent routine traffic stop, Jax sniffed out 5 pounds of methamphetamine disguised to look like a wrapped birthday gift. He also apprehended a man trying to set a homeless encampment on fire.
  • Rocket, a Border Collie mix who was going to be euthanized by a shelter due to his high energy level (what?!). Fortunately, a Search Dog Foundation recruiter saw his potential and rescued him. Rocket now pays it forward by saving victims who become trapped during natural disasters, including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and the Northern California wildfires this past year.

Actor, animal advocate and totally cool guy Danny Trejo will also be riding on the float with his rescue dog, Penny Lane.

High above the float is a replica of an Army Black Hawk helicopter, from which a highly specialized military working dog team will demonstrate a tandem rappelling operation during the parade. At the center of the float is “a rotating hexagon, with eight magnificently detailed floral-graphs, featur[ing] many inspiring photographic moments of heroic pets and working canines,” according to the Pasadena Star-News.

For the 2017 Tournament of Roses Parade, the Lucy Pet Foundation’s “Beachside Paradise” float, featuring eight surfing dogs, broke two Guinness World Records as the parade’s longest and heaviest float ever.

The 129th Rose Parade begins at 8 a.m. PST on Jan. 1. You can watch it live on ABC, NBC, the Hallmark Channel, HGTV and other channels.

Photo: spcaLA

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